Dr. Sigmund Walters (John Carradine) is a mad scientist (of course) who wants to put the glands of a human into a gorilla (for some reason). He has to kill to do it but it works and the gorilla turns into beautiful Paula Dupree (Acquanetta). She falls for lion tamer Fred Mason (Milburn Stone) and gets angry when she realizes he has a girlfriend (Evelyn Ankers). She then begins to revert to her gorilla form...Even for a horror film this plot is pretty stupid but they pull it off. It moves quick, has good acting and some very exciting lion taming at a circus (even though they reuse the same shots multiple times). Stone is just OK but Carradine hams it up, Ankers looks beautiful and screams nicely and Acquanetta doesn't have a word of dialogue but looks incredible. A silly but very enjoyable Universal horror film. Not one of their classics but lots of fun.

Brilliant, but ruthless and unscrupulous scientist Dr. Sigmund Walters (nicely underplayed by John Carradine) turns a huge wild ape into a beautiful, yet still deadly mute woman named Paula Dupree (an impressively expressive pantomime performance by the ravishing Acquanetta). Paula gets a job keeping animals tame in a circus. Complications ensue when Paula falls for rugged and dashing animal trainer Fred Mason (a likable portrayal by Milburn Stone) and reverts back to a hirsute bestial state. Director Edward Dmytryk, working from a compact script by Griffin Jay and Henry Sucher, relates the engrossing plot at a steady pace, maintains a serious mood throughout, and stages the thrilling climax involving a fierce thunderstorm and a hulking rampaging gorilla (veteran simian thespian Ray Corrigan in a nifty suit) with considerable rip-snorting aplomb. This movie further benefits from sound acting by a sturdy cast: Carradine keeps his trademark eye-rolling hammy tendencies on a leash for once, Acquanetta's dark exotic beauty adds credibility to her admittedly far-fetched role, plus there are praiseworthy contributions by the fetching Evelyn Ankers as Mason's concerned girlfriend Beth Colman, Lloyd Corrigan as jolly circus owner John Whipple, and Fay Helm as the reluctant Nurse Strand. The scenes involving savage lions and tigers performing various daring feats in a cage are genuinely gripping and exciting. George Robinson's crisp black and white cinematography makes neat use of fades and dissolves. The spirited film library score likewise does the rousing trick. The terse 61 minute running time ensures that this picture never gets dull or overstays its welcome. A huge enjoyable fright feature potboiler.

Silly, forgotten Universal horror film, now found on DVD in a Best Buy exclusive set. This one concerns a mad scientist with Nazi undertones (John Carradine) who kidnaps a circus gorilla and turns her into a human being (played by Acquanetta). As a human, Acquanetta has an uncanny ability to control lions and tigers, and is thus employed at a local circus (the one whence she, as the gorilla, was kidnapped) to help big cat tamer Milburn Stone. If Milburn Stone looks familiar, it's because he became famous as "Doc" Adams on Gunsmoke. The movie is silly but fun, with Carradine hamming it up like he usually does. And, while Acquanetta does little acting, she has a hypnotic look with those giant eyes. Unfortunately, the film, like many of the Universal Horror movies, ends abruptly, with a weird narration about the Carradine character. The animal work is pretty stunning for the time, and the editing is mostly convincing that Stone and the big cats are in the cage simultaneously. I would credit director Dmytryk, who was far too competent to be directing this kind of crap (the next year he would do the wonderful Murder My Sweet). If you love animals, you might be sickened at what is done to them. Lions and tigers are thrown into a cage and forced to fight each other. The one big fight ends with a fire hose, and the tiger, at least, looked like it was badly injured. The film is completely forgotten nowadays, but it did spawn two sequels.

Captive Wild Woman is proof that not all of the Universal horror movies of the 30s and 40s should be considered "classics". I've seen worse movies, but this is certainly one of the poorer Universal efforts I've thus far run across. The plot description on IMDb ("A mad scientist transplants human glands into a gorilla, turning the ape into a beautiful young woman (Acquanetta). However, a severe emotional jolt soon reverts her back into her primitive self with disastrous consequences.") only describes about half the movie. Seriously, the story of the gorilla turned to woman and back again doesn't take up half the movie's already short 61 minute runtime. The other half is made up of scene after seemingly endless scene of lion taming. It gets dull pretty quickly and zaps whatever energy the movie might have otherwise had going for it. Ape-turned-woman Acquanetta doesn't do much of anything other than stand mutely outside the cage and stare at the lions. How exciting is that? But if you've seen any of her other movies, having her stand like a statue is probably the extent of her acting ability. Milburn Stone is alright as the lion tamer. He also has the enviable task of man-handling Evelyn Ankers at every opportunity. Speaking of Ankers, she's wasted in a "do nothing" role. Finally, there's John Carradine. While he's actually very good, his screen time is too limited what with all the lion taming going on.More rampaging gorilla, someone other than Acquanetta playing the gorilla woman, more Carradine, something for Ankers to do, and less lion taming – that's what Captive Wild Woman needed.